Rant about working in the tutoring lab: How should I deal with this?

[PhDeezNutz]

At least some hiring managers in the normal working world, while interviewing scientific or engineering-related candidates, do conduct mathematical competency assessments, often informally, to determine if current candidate is competent. We wish even that would be an influence on your present supervisors.

I’d imagine that it’s not. If it were they would have retained the two guys who have been the pillars of the tutoring lab who have conducted such assessments through testing and interviews for over 15+ years.

I get the sneaking feeling that “top brass” only cares about appearances. It’s a real kick in the pants to those of us who care about providing students with the best services possible (and making sure our hires are capable of doing that).

 

[PhDeezNutz]

FURTHERMORE the two supervisors that left were in charge of doing analytics through the "Accudemia" (A que system for tutoring and attendance) and using R and Python to assess the attendance and efficacy in the tutoring lab (Times signed in, Times signed out, Class Subject etc, and overall attendance).

I promise no one left in the top brass actually has the wherewithal to actually assess this via statistical analysis, programming, and extracting data.

How convenient for them (top brass)? So much pretense and not enough data or the resources to analyze it. I've seen this charlatan parade around the tutoring lab and showing it off to what I would think are "stakeholders" of sorts. Can't think of a better word. "Look students interacting with each other......we must be successful judging from this 2 minute look, praise me for doing nothing" is the overall feeling I get.

I strongly suspect said top brass bureaucrat had a crap ton of administrative work to do and was too lazy to do it herself. Tried relegating it to other people and threw a fit when said people refused (for the sake of helping students instead).

 

[PhDeezNutz]

It gets even worse.......in the midst of my two direct supervisors leaving I don't know who is approving my hours in order for me to get paid. I've submitted my hours a week ago and they haven't been approved for that week.

I've been diligent about reporting my hours. They haven't been diligent about approving them.

Same said bureaucrat got on my case for not checking my email. How about you check your time approvals so I can get paid in accordance with the Law?

I'm livid and angry.

 

[hutchphd]

Same said bureaucrat got on my case for not checking my email.

I thought you did not know who to submit hours to? Who is this "same bureaucrat" ?? Three deep breaths, please. You need to know who is doing what to whom.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

I thought you did not know who to submit hours to? Who is this "same bureaucrat" ?? Three deep breaths, please.

I submit my hours through an overarching system electronically. I presume she’s responsible for approving them now (through that same portal) now that my other 2 supervisors below her are gone.

My point is that I shouldn’t have to track down and pester bureaucrats to get paid for my hours.

 

[hutchphd]

Yes absolutely. But she may have nothing to do directly with the payroll. And she is responsible after (if) you complain to her about no pay.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

Yes absolutely. But she may have nothing to do directly with the payroll. And she is responsible if you complain to her about no pay.

My two previous supervisors were responsible for approving my hours previously. And now that they are gone I fully expect the infrastructure to be in place to approve my hours in a timely manner. (I.e. she (or someone else) should take over their responsibilities in their absence, especially ensuring those who work get paid in a timely manner)

I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

If the system fails without two key people, it means the system sucked in the first place.

 

[hutchphd]

You need to understand how the windmills work before you pick up the lance and mount your trusty horse. Otherwise trouble portends.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

@hutchphd I don’t mean to get angry with you. Perhaps I didn’t explain my self enough to begin with.

Long story short: if certain parts or an organization vacate then the higher ups (if they are upstanding) must take it upon themselves to fulfill those responsibilities. Especially if the law dictates it.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

You need to understand how the windmills work before you pick up the lance and mount your trusty horse. Otherwise trouble portends.

I get it, unrestrained anger (and expressing it inappropriately) is not the way forward. But man it’s tempting to explode on them.

 

[hutchphd]

Only God herself has no boss. Everyone else is under the wheel somehow. Try to figure the political landscape.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

Only God herself has no boss. Everyone else is under the wheel somehow. Try to figure the political landscape.

Part of that landscape is that if I don’t get paid once a month at the very least I can sue them :)

 

[hutchphd]

Who would you sue? Talk with that person.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Only God herself has no boss.

You've obviously never dealt with a university president.
The difference, of course, is that God doesn't think he's a university president.

 

[hutchphd]

Moneyed alumni. Everyone has short hairs.......
God knows better.
But point well taken...

 

[PhDeezNutz]

cooler heads prevail. Luckily I’m not starving and I have money saved up. And eventually they will pay me (they have to). It’s just a matter of principle.

 

[Frabjous]

Have you thought about moving on?

 

[BillTre]

Its good to get all worked up about somethings.
But persevering too long on something is not good.

Some situations have no good solutions.
Maybe you need a new job.
Make a decision on a course of action and move on.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

Its good to get all worked up about somethings.
But persevering too long on something is not good.

Some situations have no good solutions.
Maybe you need a new job.
Make a decision on a course of action and move on.

It seems so. I applied for the vacant supervisor role and my interview is next Tuesday via online Teams but even that may be a bad idea given the incompetence of “top brass”.

I’ll need to spend time beefing up my machine learning and programming skills. Through studying the mathematical background and doing programming projects in order to break into tech.

Luckily I have the financial means to sustain myself in the long run. (Rich parents) but I don’t want to use that card……but I might have to in order to make headway into a real career.

Edit: I meant to quote @Frabjous post too but for some reason it didn’t work. This is also a response to that post.

Edit: it’s also via teams because said top brass work from home……

 

[Frabjous]

What exactly is your current status and what are your career aspirations?

 

[PhDeezNutz]

What exactly is your current status and what are your career aspirations?

Have a masters in physics was not able to secure a job as a programmer or data scientist so I took this tutoring job.

 

[Frabjous]

Have a masters in physics was not able to secure a job as a programmer or data scientist so I took this tutoring job.

What are your career aspirations?
Have you made any progress on them while on the tutoring job?

 

[PhDeezNutz]

What are your career aspirations?
Have you made any progress on them while on the tutoring job?

Don’t really know. I thought I would have climbed the ladder in my current role but apparently that’s just a dead end.

I need to take time to think about it.

At the very least I plan to go through this book from cover to cover.

https://mml-book.github.io/book/mml-book.pdf


Mathematics for Machine Learning

 

[Frabjous]

Don’t really know. I thought I would have climbed the ladder in my current role but apparently that’s just a dead end.

I need to take time to think about it.

At the very least I plan to go through this book from cover to cover.

https://mml-book.github.io/book/mml-book.pdf


Mathematics for Machine Learning

You have an interview coming up. It is not clear that it is a dead end. You are dismissive about doing it on Teams, but it might be policy to treat all applicants the same.

I am not sure that learning the mathematics of machine learning on your own will make you hireable.

Some questions to ask yourself.
Where do you want to be in n years? Where do you need to be in 1 year to be on that path? What do you need to do today in order to get there?

Good luck.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

You have an interview coming up. It is not clear that it is a dead end. You are dismissive about doing it on Teams, but it might be policy to treat all applicants the same.

I am not sure that learning the mathematics of machine learning on your own will make you hireable.

Some questions to ask yourself.
Where do you want to be in n years? Where do you need to be in 1 year to be on that path? What do you need to do today in order to get there?

Good luck.

Thanks for the encouragement. These are important questions to ask and I have not really taken the time to answer them. I’ll have to do some soul searching and “land surveying” before I can come up with answers. No time to start like the present.

In addition to learning the mathematics I will be posting projects on GitHub. A portfolio of sorts would probably help.

Also gonna learn more about data structures and tackle the “Blind 75”.

Thanks again.

 

[WWGD]

cooler heads prevail. Luckily I’m not starving and I have money saved up. And eventually they will pay me (they have to). It’s just a matter of principle.

Isn't there an ombudsman or similar in your school you can speak with? Or, can't you simultaneously find a job outside the lab? Your setup is not likely to change over the middle run, let alone the short run.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

Isn't there an ombudsman or similar in your school you can speak with? Or, can't you simultaneously find a job outside the lab? Your setup is not likely to change over the middle run, let alone the short run.

There is certainly a complaint department I can go to but I don’t want to use that card and burn those bridges until I absolutely have to. (I’m trying to move up the chain to a salaried position).

If I have to I can find a job outside the lab. But before that I’m going to apply for the vacant job of supervisor. My first interview is Tuesday.

If I get the job I will be happy and I’ll have a salary as opposed to hours that have to be approved.

With that said, many posters in this thread have shown me the truth: I need to be building up skills in the meantime and be ready for a way out. Like you and many others have said management seems completely lost and the situation is not likely to improve.

Just got to bite my tongue in the meantime.

 

[hutchphd]

With whom will you interview? Try to make a friend and ally. You don't really want the job unless there are some reasonable people in the organization with whom to partner.. So be relentlessly affirmative but do not hide your hopes and plans for improvement. Positive.......Good Luck.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

With whom will you interview? Try to make a friend and ally. You don't really want the job unless there are some reasonable people in the organization with whom to partner.. So be relentlessly affirmative but do not hide your hopes and plans for improvement. Positive.......Good Luck.

Same person who presumably approves my hours now. I sent her an email about it (that wasn’t accusatory). Hopefully she responds Monday (my interview is Tuesday).

No I really don’t want this job but it will sustain me in the meantime as I work on an exit plan. But maybe I’ll be able to change things by acting diplomatically. Ultimately I care about the students and the changes as of late make me wonder if higher ups share the same sentiment as I do, and even if they do, are they even aware of student needs? The people who I did get along with and look up to left.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

So update…..I’m a little bit calmer now. She told me that the system (for approving time) crashed Friday and they were all instructed to wait until Monday. This has never happened before…..but it’s not totally surprising that it could happen. After all it’s a large infrastructure.

I guess I let my mind go to the darkest place and assume the worst because of largely pre-conceived notions.

Edit: regardless I’m going to continue studying that mathematics behind machine learning along with learning about data structures and algorithms. If for no other reason than personal growth.

 

[MidgetDwarf]

Have you tried teaching at one of cc? Although pay can vary, and be on the low side for first time timers. Maybe teaching will make you happier in the short term? Theres los helping students with GED,at least in California, the cc pay about $70 bucks an hour. Enough free time to work on what ever skills you want to learn...

 

[hutchphd]

I guess I let my mind go to the darkest place and assume the worst because of largely pre-conceived notions.

And it never hurts to repeat the one truth in all of this $$The~only~behavior~I ~can~control~is ~ my ~own$$ Sometimes difficult to really believe this.